Biltmore Dining: Bistro

For the environmentally conscience diner, this is the restaurant for you. As a Certified Green Restaurant, an accolade awarded to surprisingly few restaurants, those who want to make a small carbon footprint will be pleased that this is a guilt-free restaurant.

As with almost all the eateries at Biltmore, the Bistro is another farm-to-table place and prides itself on its local, seasonal offerings. This does make the menu somewhat limited and that seems to be the chief complaint among those who found fault with the restaurant. I, however, did not find the menu limited. The menu offered everything from burgers to pizza to soup and salad. The menu isn’t pages and pages long but there is a little of everything and most offerings come with vegetarian and gluten free options.

The Bistro opens up at noon and continues to be open until nine PM. To me, the style of food offered is more geared toward the early afternoon lunch-type dining than dinner dining. As its name implies, it is a bistro, with more lighter offerings and smaller portions to enable guests to continue on with their day. If you want heavier meals across the board, this may not be the restaurant choice for you but the food is delicious.

I went with the French Onion soup because it was one of the most recommended soups on the menu and I was very pleased with the dish. Perfectly seasoned, this is now one of my favorite places to get French Onion soup. I also had the fried chicken salad as my main dish and that quickly became another favorite as well.

One of the best parts of the bistro was the central location at the village. It’s very easy to pop in after you take the winery tours and then pop right out to shop at the speciality shops the village is known for. Parking for the village is also a lot less of a hike than the parking near the main house. However, because of its central location, parking and reservations do fill up quickly in the busier months, so you might want to check in ahead of time to make sure you won’t be waiting too long.

As with most places at Biltmore, this restaurant is impeccable and the food delicious.